


Wild Horses

by castaliareed



Series: Songs of the Starklings [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Canon Universe, House Stark, Other, Pre-Canon, R plus L equals J, Winterfell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 06:08:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10483869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castaliareed/pseuds/castaliareed
Summary: Little Lyanna is so excited that her big brother Ned is visiting from the Vale. She insists that they go riding in the Wolfswood.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My Starklings are a little older than I would normally make them for this one. Ned is approx. 11 and Lyanna around 9. I really struggled to get the ages right. I also think they are little further apart in age in canon but I didn't want them to be too far apart in age. This also plays into my head canon about an artsy Ned.
> 
> I tried to get Grandma Arya speaking in a dialect. I'm sure I did a horrible job! Please forgive me.

Ned woke up that morning to a loud banging on his door. Only being back at Winterfell for two days, he was still exhausted after his long journey from the Vale.  He had spent most those first two days sleeping much to his sister's disappointment. 

Trying to ignore the banging, hoping whoever it was would go away, Ned kept very quiet. He could see that it was barely light out. The first hints of dawn showing through the window of his room in Winterfell. It had been a year since he had last been in the castle. This time, he had only come for a short visit. His guardian Jon Arryn, Lord of the Vale, felt it was good for his wards to see their families regularly.

Sometimes Ned felt guilty for loving the Vale so much. It was the most beautiful place he had ever been. The people chivalrous. His best friend, Robert Baratheon full of life. He respected and admired Jon Arryn who had been kind to him and taught him how to be an honorable lord. The only person he missed at Winterfell was Lyanna. _Lyanna and the Godswood. The Vale doesn't have a Godswood or sisters._

After stopping for a few moments, the banging on the door continued even louder this time. "Ned, wake up!" nine-year-old Lyanna Stark commanded while finally barging into his room. _Maybe I don't miss her so much,_ he thought. 

"Aye, who'd ya think ya are?" he complained pulling the furs over his head. "Queen of the seven kingdoms?" 

"Could be," she replied. Ned snorted at that. Wild, fearless, Lyanna had about as much chance of being a Queen as he had of being a King or a Lord for that matter. Second sons are lucky if they get a holdfast on their older brother's land. 

"You've been sleeping for two days," she complained. "We've hardly seen you."

"I'll be here for two whole moon's turns," he assured her. 

"You promised in your messages that we would do things." she reminded him.

"We will."

"Today!" she demanded. Ned sighed letting her pull the furs off him. 

"Ok..Ok...but I'm too old to play come into my castle," he said. "I'm almost twelve, now."

"I don't play baby games anymore," she said. "We're going riding!" Ned could hear the excitement in her voice. True, his sister was no longer a baby but she was a child. Lyanna had grown tall in the last year. Her cheeks full and her face did seem longer. Still, she was a gangly girl. _She will be beautiful someday, in a wild sort of way._  

Ned let his sister drag him out of the room to break their fast in one of the smaller halls.  

"Ya aren't waking Benjen?" he asked. 

"Nope," she said. "He can't ride as far." Ned smiled at her, mussing her hair when they entered the small room with a long table. 

"Good," he said. "Just you and me." Lyanna smiled back at him. He loved his brothers but not how he loved Lyanna. As soon as she could walk, she followed Ned around always underfoot. He took pride in teaching her about the castle or looking after her. The only time he cried when he left Winterfell for the Vale was when he thought about how much he missed his sister. 

"How far are we going?" he asked as they sat across from each other at the table, bowls of porridge in front of them. 

"You'll see," she answered. 

"Aye, look at mi granchild'n, up so early," said a woman's voice.

"We're going riding," Lyanna announced to their Grandmother Arya who had just entered the room.

"Ah can see," she said. "Looks like a young one finally got h'mself out of bed." She winked at Ned. "Now, let mi pack ya food. Don't wan mi wee ones to go hungry, now."

"We're not wee ones, Grandmama," Lyanna corrected.

"Aye, ya wee ones as long as I say ya are," she said. Ned smiled at his Grandmother, who left the hall to get them a pack of food. 

After finishing their porridge, the Stark siblings rode out in the early morning light. It was late summer and there was a mist over the Northern hills. Ned thought it looked otherworldly. _Not as beautiful as the Vale but still enchanting_. The sun was rising fast as they rode toward the Wolfswood, Lyanna on a gray pony and Ned on a larger brown colt. 

They followed a winding creek for a time then rode along a narrow path. Lyanna confidently leading the way. Ned ashamed to admit he had forgotten the way after being gone for so long. 

Stopping near the creek when the sun was high in the sky, they began to eat the breads and cheeses in the pack. Grandmama Arya had even remembered to give them apples. Sitting on large warm rocks they shared the food. Lyanna begged Ned to tell her about the Vale, peppering him with questions about the Eyrie, the food, the mountains, and the people. 

"Is it true that the Eyrie is the most beautiful castle in all the seven kingdoms?" she asked. 

"Well, I haven't seen all the castles but the Eyrie is...It's amazing," he said. "It sits on a mountain so high. Ya have to climb up or ride in a basket to visit."

Lyanna laughed at the thought of riding up in a basket. Reaching into another pack he had brought along Ned pulled out a small leather bound book. 

"Here, I'll show ya," he told her opening the book to hand drawn images of the Eyrie in a dark charcoal. 

"Oh Ned," she said. "This is beautiful. Did you?" She looked at him. Her gray eyes a question. 

Ned looked at her sheepishly, "Promise you won't tell?"

"Oh but these are so magical," she said flipping the pages to a picture of Alyssa's Tears, the majestic waterfall. "I wish I could go back with you." 

"Ya too young," he told her taking his notebook back, shoving it in his pack.

"I'm almost ten!" 

"Still, too young!" he teased, mussing her hair again. 

"Am not! I heard Father talking with Grandmama. Said they'll have to start thinking about my betrothal." she said, defiant in her tone. 

Ned gave his little sister a surprised look. 

"Sybil Cerwyn was betrothed when she was 7," Lyanna added. 

Ned grunted. He didn't know anything about betrothals but seven seemed very young to make a decision like that. He hated the thought of getting betrothed and hated the thought of his baby sister being betrothed even more. 

"I wish we could get married," she said staring into the sky. 

This made Ned laugh, "Don't be silly."

"It's not silly. If we could get married, I could go to the Vale with you," she said. "You would have to take your Lady wife."

"Brothers and sisters don't marry," Ned clarified. 

"Targaryens do."

"That's Targaryens," he said. "We're Starks." Ned doubted Lyanna understood what all getting married meant. No matter how tall she was, she was still barely nine-years-old. 

"Fine," Lyanna pouted. "But our children could marry. Like our Lady Mother and Lord Father."

"Yes, I suppose so," Ned said. He didn't remind her that he was a second son. If she married a great Lord, it would be Brandon's children her sons and daughters would marry not his. 

"Grandmama Arya said our son and daughter will marry," she told him. Ned looked at his sister, their Lady Grandmother had a habit of saying whatever came to her mind. 

"I heard her talking about that with Father, too," Lyanna told him. "Then they started arguing." Ned decided not to ask Lyanna why his father and grandmother were arguing over Lyanna's future. He could only imagine. Arya Flint was a fierce, independent woman from the mountain clans. Who most likely didn't want her only granddaughter shipped off to some southron high lord like his father intended. 

"Grandmama and our Lord Father always argue," Ned reminded his sister. She only shrugged in agreement. How his Lady Grandmother had ever birthed his quiet soft-spoken mother one could only guess. Ned barely remembered his mother who died given birth to Benjen when he was barely 6 years old. But everyone said Lyarra Stark was kind and quiet and most of all nothing like her mother.  

Lyanna decided to get up from the warm rock. Walking back to their horses, she motioned for Ned to follow. His sister had decided lunch was over. They rode further into the woods for another hour. Stopping every so often to climb up a half-fallen tree, or onto some large rocks. Finally, Ned noticed the sun getting lower in the sky and suggested that they turn back. Lyanna reluctantly agreed. They found a path that would lead back towards Winterfell. 

"Race you!" Lyanna Stark shouted to Ned. Before Ned could give his horse a kick, his sister was off flying through the Wolfswood. He shook his head and rode after her. She was a good rider, no she was an excellent rider. He thought she might actually beat him back to the castle. Rounding a bend, Ned lost sight of her. Deciding to slow his horse he thought, _Maybe, I'll let her win this one. A peaceful quiet ride might not be the worst thing._

"Ned, Ned come, quick," he heard his sister shout from up ahead. 

Worried, he pushed his horse to speed up. The path led into a wide clearing where he found Lyanna stood in the middle of almost a dozen wild horses. 

"Lyanna, be careful," he shouted. "Those are wild. Ya gonna get hurt." She walked up to several of them. Touching their noses, calmly looking into their eyes. Ned tried to walk towards her and a horse reared at him forcing him to back away. Still, Lyanna moved amongst the beasts. Ned was mesmerized. It was as if she was communicating with them. 

"Come, Ned," she called to him.

"They reared at me," he called back.

"Just walk slowly," she said. "I told them you were safe." Ned walked as carefully as he could towards his sister. She was whispering to a white one speckled with gray while petting it gently on the nose, "I knew we would find you." He heard her say. "I wanted you to meet my brother, Ned. He's my best brother."

"Lyanna..." he started. 

"Shhh.." she told him. "Aren't they beautiful?"

"Yes," he said. "But..." A branch cracked loudly in the distance causing the horses to turn their heads and after a moment they galloped off into the woods. Lyanna watched the horses until the last one faded out of sight. Sighing, she started to walk back to her own gray pony. 

Ned followed her, climbing onto the brown colt. "Ya should be careful," he told her. "Wild horses are unpredictable."

She turned and smiled at him, "They are my friends." _Of course, they are,_  he thought with a laugh. Lyanna rode off ahead of him. It wasn't long before brother and sister reached the castle. 

Late that night, Ned found himself alone in his room. He pulled out his sketch book trying to remember the day. The image of Lyanna stood in the middle of the wild horses fresh in his mind. His hands sketched the lines recreating his sister, the horses, the trees, even the creek. Hardly finishing one drawing before taking a fresh piece of parchment and starting another. 

The door of his room cracked open, Lyanna peaked her head in. "What are you doing?" she asked.

Ned looked up from the floor where he was sitting surrounded by half finished sketches, "Drawing," he said. She bounced into the room, sitting on the floor next to him. Picking up the pieces of parchment looking at them, smiling when she saw the one of her. 

"Aren't y supposed to be asleep?" he asked her.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied. He nodded and kept drawing. She began telling him about the different horses. The names she had given them, how often she visited them. He thought how he had missed the sound of her chatter. It wasn't long before she laid her head down on a fur on the floor next to him. He looked over and saw her asleep. Her body gently moving up and down to the rhythm of her breath. 

Studying his sister, Ned took a clean piece of parchment and began to draw the lines of her shoulders, her arms, the shape of her head and nose. _She's beautiful when she's asleep._

The door opened again, causing Ned to look up meeting the eyes of his Grandmother. 

"Ah, thar she is," his grandmother said shaking her head. "I swear the wee one keeps ya on ya toes mo' than any ya boys ever did." His Grandmother walked into the room and sat in a chair near the empty hearth. 

"Hate to wake her," she said looking at Ned then down at the drawings. "Ya have a good eye, boy." Ned only nodded not sure what to say to his Grandmother. He felt her stare at him for awhile. 

"Ya'll have to use it to watch over her," she said her voice serious. Ned shifted uncomfortably. "Look at me, child," she commanded him. Ned did as he was told. 

"One day, ya wee sister won't be so wee and she'll ask something very important of ya," she began. "Ya must do it. Ned, ya must promise her to do it. Whatever, she asks of you."

Ned mumbled, "How..will..I kno.."

"Speak up, child," his grandmother said. Lyanna stirred in her sleep on the floor.

"How will I know?" he said more clearly. He watched his Grandmother learn back in her chair closing her eyes.

"Ya'll know, Ned. Ya'll know," was all she said. The room fell silent with only the sound of Lyanna's breath. After awhile, Ned thought his Grandmother had fallen asleep, too. Though, she opened her eyes getting up from the chair, "I won't be here much longer." Ned understood what she meant and the thought made him terribly sad. She walked toward him to give him a hug and a kiss on the top of the head. 

"Don't be sad, child," she smiled at him. "Spring always comes after winter." She gently woke Lyanna and guided her out of Ned's room. 

At the end of two moons turns, Ned found himself in the courtyard of Winterfell preparing to leave. It was early in the morning, his father, brothers, Lyanna, and his Grandmother had come to see him off. He said goodbye to each of them. 

His Grandmother kissed his cheek whispering in his ear, "Remember what I told ya, child." He looked up at her with wide gray eyes, "Promise me, Ned." she said to him. He nodded dutifully at his Grandmother. 

When the time came for him to say goodbye to Lyanna, he handed her a folded piece of parchment. She opened it and smiled seeing her own image surrounded by wild horses. Ned kissed her forehead before mounting his horse to begin the long journey back to the Vale. 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a bit of an easter egg later on in one of my other fics in relation to this one!


End file.
